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In earlier essays I argued that writing has become increasingly marginalized in schools. When we stop measuring something, we often stop valuing it. The result is that writing receives less attention in many classrooms. My question this day is, does it really matter that schools no longer emphasize writing, and many completely neglect it? The argument I hear in many of my circles is, it’s obsolete. AI can do everything for us now. If AI writes better and faster than we do, wh

by Traci C. Eshelman, PhD Introduction For generations, American schooling was founded on three disciplines: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Historically, writing has functioned as the “middle child” of the trio, quietly expected to mature on its own, assumed to develop naturally, and routinely overshadowed by its louder siblings, reading and arithmetic. Over the past two decades, however, this middle‑child neglect has intensified. Writing has been pushed so far aside by re

“Writing is a process of problem solving.” - Flower & Hayes (1981) Intro Writing is the foundation of thought. When students write, they plan, evaluate, revise, and make meaning. When they don’t, those cognitive processes fade. Yet for nearly two decades, the United States has operated without a shared measure of student writing, leaving a national blind spot in the very area most responsible for developing critical thinking. Writing and critical thinking are deeply intertw